A friend of mine who speaks hardly any english had an old phone bill unpaid for a breach of contract and it was around $750 and he never paid. The debt was sold to a local attorney who garnished his bank account and took $1775. He was mailed a $6 check along with the garnishment paper work(no letter of explanation, I assuming it was overage). This was a month and half ago. The original debt is still showing on his credit report. Today I contacted the lawyers office on his behalf and talk to an extremely rude lady(she was an attorney) and would not fax a paid in full letter saying he still owes another $357 and would not breakdown the charges and say that he had the breakdown already.
I got so upset! But then I reminded myself that this was not my battle and wondered why I was so worked up. She was really rude basically a BIAAAAATCH! How can I help him? With out getting involved where It is taking up to much of mine time. Can he sue in small claims court to get an explaination?
2007-03-28 17:17:50 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Politics & Government ➔ Law & Ethics
I feel his rights have been violated and wonder how many more weak people these vultures take advange of?
2007-03-28 17:21:55 · update #1
GOOD ANSWER KRIS55 I think I'm going to take your advise.
2007-03-28 17:32:56 · update #2
Don we live in MICHIGAN.
2007-03-28 17:58:41 · update #3
Well, I work for a collections agency (I do IT work) and I can pretty much tell you that collectors are pretty scummy. Many of them have no skills except that they can talk on a phone and badger people for money. Many of them are drug users but my company looks the other way because they are such cheap labor for the amount of money they bring in. If it makes you feel any better we often joke that collectors have more debt than the people they call. On more than one occasion I've seen a collector yelling at someone on the phone trying to collect money from THEM.
It's a dirty business but it's very profitable. Usually things don't get as messed up as it did with your friend but it does happen. Also, we don't report anything to the credit agencies. If you settle an account you should send the release letter to the three agencies yourself.
2007-03-28 17:34:24 · answer #1 · answered by vagabond79 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
We are talking about someone making off with $1,025. Granted he should have paid his bills on time, however the vultures didn't need to come out in force and take advantage of him. Normally when a bad debt is turned over to a collection agency the merchant gets half and the collection company gets half of the original debt. Thus the $357 probably represents one half which went to the phone company. I am not sure what state in the US you live in or if it is in the US or not. If it is you should be able to take the collection company and the attorney to small claims court for taking such an excessive amount from the bank account.
2007-03-29 00:55:48 · answer #2 · answered by don n 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The person who started all this is the deadbeat who didn't pay the original bill.
If it weren't for deadbeats, there wouldn't be any reason for collection agencys, now would there.
Your friend spoke enough English to get into debt and he can certainly understand that he is not entitled to free service........he should just pay the darn thing before they drag him back into court. They are going to get it one way or the other....
2007-03-29 01:56:13 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No lower than the people who do not pay their bills. Even people who hardly speak any english know to pay a bill when it comes. If they do not, they can get someone to help them. My grandfather could barely speak english, and he always paid his bills.
2007-03-29 00:21:05 · answer #4 · answered by Sparkles 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
sounds like the problem is your friend not paying his bill. speaking very little english is no excuse either. get a translator or someone else to help. he garnered that one by himself.
look at it this way. if I skipped my classes, and get an F in the class, would it be fair to call my professor a jerk?
2007-03-29 00:24:41 · answer #5 · answered by IK 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
here is what you should do.
tell your friend that in the future he should pay his bills on time and avoid these kinds of problems.
you would do well to stay out of it.... why bother yourself over this mans inability to keep his debts in order.
perhaps if HE pays penalties and HE has to deal with rude lawyers HE would pay more attention to the bills HE needs to pay!
2007-03-29 00:29:32 · answer #6 · answered by KRIS 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
if you pay your bills, you get no phone calls from these folks.
2007-03-29 00:20:35 · answer #7 · answered by patriot07 5 · 3⤊ 0⤋